“Mr. Anthony Thacher, it is believed, was born in Somersetshire County, England, about the year 1589. In 1610 he was in Leyden, with the English congregation, where he remained about twenty years. In 1633 and 1634 he served as curate, to his brother, Peter, who was rector of the church of the parish of St. Edmunds, at Salisbury, County of Wiltz. Though an ardent Separatist, he, for this short period, found it consistent to act in this capacity, for a congregation of strong Puritan tendencies. April 6, 1635, he sailed in the ship James, Wm. Cooper, master, from Southampton, for New England, with Thomas, son of his brother, Peter, (who was afterwards the pastor of Old South church, in Boston,) then a youth of fifteen, arriving in Newbury, in Massachusetts, in June of that year. In the list of passengers of this vessel, as it appears in the Admiralty office, he is entered as ‘Anthony Thacher of Sarum, tailor.’ This was done to elude the vigilance of the authorities, which would beset the embarkation of one having ecclesiastical orders. In August, 1635, Mr. Thacher, with his family, his cousin, Rev. John Avery and family, and other connections, sailed from Ipswich in a bark bound to Marblehead. A great storm arose, the tide rising twenty feet. Their vessel was driven upon a rock on an island which now bears the name of Thacher, and his four children were drowned, he and his wfie being the only ones saved of a company of twenty-three. For a short time after the disaster he resided at Marblehead, and ‘the court, in consideration of his losses, granted him twenty-six pounds, thirteen shillings and forepence.’ ‘Divers good people also ministered to his necessities.’ A curious record of the Essex County court, in connection with Mr. Thacher, has recently come to light. The court was held the 4th month, 13th, 1639, John Winthrop, senior, Governor; John Endicott, Colonel; John Winthrop, junior, Lieutenant Colonel, and other magistrates being present. ‘A complaint was brought in by Mr. Anthony Thacher, against Jane James, for things taken forth of his house which she had received.’ She was bound to good behavior for twelve months, her husband being her surety, in the sum of three shillings, the boys [who committed the theft] ‘to be whipped by the governor of the family where they had offended.’ This shows that Mr. Thacher, though nominally of Yarmouth, had not removed his family to his new home. He came to Yarmouth, early in 1639, establishing his dwelling by the borders of the meadows in the northwest part of the town, as one of the founders of a new settlement. He was honored and trusted by his generation, for his piety and wisdon, and died in 1667, aged nearly of forescore years. His descendants, some of whom dwell on the ancestral acres, are numerous and respected, and have for seven or eight generations exercised a wide influence in the affairs of the town and State. His first wife died in 1634, and for a second wife he married Elizabeth Jones, six weeks previous to sailing for New England. . . Mr. Thacher was for many years one of the deputies to the Colony Court, Land Committee and Town Clerk. he was appointed one of the Council of War, during the apprehended hostilities with the Narragansett Indians. The town, for his services as Land Committee, granted him a lot of meadow, containing some twenty acres, located to the southeast of the present wharves, which was known by the name of ‘The Reward.’ The liberality of the gift is not to be measured by the present value of such property. A descendant in Yarmouth still retains a scarlet broadcloth cradle coverlet, said to have been wrapped around one of the children who perished in the shipwreck of 1635. Mr. Thacher was buried near a pear-tree a short distance from his house, which tradition says, was planted with his own hands, and which is still standing, but the precise spot of sepulture cannot now be identified.”
293"Antony Thacher spent the early years of his life in Queen Camel where he was living as late as 1622."
552“On the 12th of August, 1635, a pinnace, having on board Reb. John Avery and family, eleven person in all, including his wife and six children; Mr. Anthony Thacher, his wife, four children, and another person of his family; one other passenger, and four mariners, - sailed from Ipswich for Marblehead, where Mr. Avery had engaged to settle in the ministry. The wind being unfavorable, they had not doubled the Cape at night on the 14th. About ten o’clock that night, in a fresh gale of wind, their sails were split, and the vessel was brought to anchor; but, before daylight next morning a furious sotrn came on, and she began to drag her anchor, and drift about at the mercy of the wind and waves. She was finally driven ‘upon a rock between two high rocks, yet all was one rock.’ Mr. Avery and his eldest son, and Mr. Thacher and daughter, were by ‘a mighty wave’ washed out upon the rock whence they called to those in the pinnace to come to them; but the next wave dashed the vessel to pieces, and swept away those who had gained a momentary foothold upon the rock. After he had been washed about by the sea and beaten against the rock for a quarter of an hour, Mr. Thacher at last felt the bottom and soon foudn himself standing on his feet, breast-deep in the water, with his face towards the shore, which he soon reached in safety. His first act, after blessing god, was to look for his family and friends; but the merciless ocean had swallowed them all save one - the one who, of all that ill-fated company, could most deeply sympathize with him in the loss of his children and most heartily unite with him in thanksgiving for the wonderful delieverance they had experienced, - his wife. Soon after he reached the shore, he saw her ‘getting herself forth from amongst the timber of the broken bark;’ from which, before he could join her, she cleared herself; and, going to her husband they sought together a resting-place under a bank. Some provisions and clothing came asshore; as also, fortunately, a ‘snapsack’ containing a steel, flint, and some gunpowder in a dry condition. With these they made themselves comfortable, till on the second day after the shipwreck, they were taken off, and carried to Marblehead. Mr. Thacher arrived in New England but a few weeks before the distressing event which deprived him of all his children. Public liberality and private benevolence contributed to make up to him the loss of his property, adn the lapse ofyears filled in part the places of his lost children. He settled in Yarmouth, and died there in 1668, aged about eighty, leaving a son, by whose descendants the name is perpetuated in various places. On his departure fromt he sorrowful scene of his shipwreck, he gave his own name to the island upon which he was cast, calling it ‘Thacher’s Woe;’ and the rock on which the vessel was wrecked was called ‘Avery his Fall.’ “
661“A letter from Mr. Thacher to his brother, written in the most pathetic language, giving a particular account of his shipwreck, has been preserved, and reprinted in Young’s Chronicles of Massachusetts, with a valuabel note by the editor. The rock lying off the head of Cape Ann, now called ‘Avery’s Rock,’ cannot be the one mentioned in Mr. Thacher’s narrative, for reasons that will be apparent enough to any one who will visit Thacher’s Island with the narrative in his hand. Avery’s Rock is more than two miles from the island, - much too great a distance for a man to be carried by the sea in a quarter of an hour. Besides, we know that the terrific gale which caught the pinnace off our Cape was from the east, - a direction almost contrary to that which points from Avery’s Rock to Thacher’s Island. But what settles the question is the fact, that the present Avery’s Rock never shows itself, even at low water, above the surface of the sea. Mr. William Hale, late keeper of the lights on Thacher’s Island, and several other persons living at the Cape, who have carefully read the narrative, give their opinion, that the fatal rock was a ledge on the south side of the island, about a gunshot distant from it, now called Crackwood’s Ledge.”
661“THACHER.
Tomas and Antony THACHER, 1595-1667, of Yarmouth, Mass., sons of Rev. Peter Thacher, Vicar of Queen Camel, Somersetshire, England, 1574-1624.
Arms - Gules, on a fesse or, between three lozenges ermine, a trefoil slipped azure between two eagles’ heads erased of the field, beaked argent, and about their necks a leash of the last.
Crest - A bittern sitting among reeds proper.” [black and white picture on file]
493he “resided at Queen Camel, Eng., Salisbury, Engl, Marblehead (then Salem) Mass., and Yarmouth, Mass.; he was a curate of the Church of England and one of the original grantees of the town of Yarmouth, Mass.; he died at Yarmouth, Mass., between June 30th, 1667, and August 22nd, 1667, and was buried on his own land in Yarmouth.”
262“Res. Q.C. Co. Som., Eng., Salisbury, Eng. Came over on James 1635. Arr. Boston, Mass., June 4, 1635. Res. at Marblehead, Mass. Set. at Yarmouth, Mass. Dep. G.C. Ply. Col.; Council of War. . . Note: Descendants eligible to Soc. of Colonial Wars.”
555“Antony (2) Thacher was born in Queen Camel in 1588-9. We have no distinct record of his birth there as the parish register of St. Barnabas’ Church is not in existence covering that period of time, and the earliest date in the Diocesan transcript of that Register at Wells is 1601. But, as his father Rev. Peter (1) Thacher was living then at Queen Camel as Vicar of St. Barnabas, we are justified in assuming him to have been born there. Especially so, as it is recorded in the ordinations papers of his brother, Rev. Peter (2) Thacher of St. Edmund’s, that he, Rev. Peter (2), was born in Queen Camel. As Antony (2) Thacher was curate under his brother, Rev. Peter (2) at St. Edmund’s it has always been justifiably conjectured that he was younger than Rev. Peter (2): and it is a matter of early family record that Antony (2) Thacher died in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, in 1667 aged about 80 years. These facts taken in connection one with another, place the date of his birh as 1588-9.”
258,
262Many details to be entered.
262"In 1610 we hear of him at Leyden, where he remained with Robinson and his associates about twenty years. But though imbued with the Pilgrim spirit, he found it consistent with his principles to serve as curate to his brother, Peter, who was rector of the church of the parish of St. Edmunds at Salisbury, county of Wiltz."
296 “We have a fair clue to some of the English relatives of these emigrants, as Clement Thatcher of Marston-Bigot, co. Somerset, (a village some three miles south of Frome,) in his will, dated 1629, and proved 1639, mentions his wife Bridget, children, Clement, Thomas, Hannah, Mary, and Joan; kinsmen, William and Thomas; and leaves 40s. to his brother Anthony, ‘then beyond the seas.’ Previously, in 1611, was proved the will of Thomas Thatcher of Beckington, co. Somerset, (a place some six miles north of Marston-Bigot,) in which he directs that if his brother Anthony, who was then in ‘the separation, joined in the profession of true religion, with any true church, that then his executor, - within one year after he should have so joined himself, either with the reformed Dutch church, in which country he then dwelt, or should return to England, - should pay his said brother £5 in token of brotherly affection.’ We see therefore that Anthony Thatcher was in Holland, a Puritan, in 1611, and beyond the sea in 1629, (? and in 1639) and we feel well assured that this was our New England man. The Rev. Peter Thatcher died at Salisbury, Feb. 5, 1640, in the ninth year of his ministry, where his tombstone still remained in 1839, as I learn from a letter of Rev. George Ratcliffe, Jr., of that place. His will mentions his brother Anthony in New England, as well as his own sons there, Peter and Thomas, and also his brother-in-law, Christopher Batts, (husband to his sister Anne,) and his brother John. Anthony seems to have left a child in charge of his brother Peter, who may be the anthony who was a curate at Salisbury in 1633 and afterwards. Farther than this I cannot trace the family, though Nicholas Carlisle, Esq., of the British Museum, a competent authority, thought it a branch of the old Sussex family of the name.”
553 “Anthony (1) Thatcher, his cousin the Rev. John Avery, and a friend, William Elliot, formerly of New Sarum, with their families, suffered a most disastrous shipwreck off Marblehead. His own account says there were seven in his family and mentions his wife, sons William and Peter, daughters Mary and edith, all of which children were lost at that time. He had two sons born afterwards, viz., Judah, who settled in Connecticut, and John, b. March 17, 1639, as well as a daughter, Bethiah, who m. Jabez Howland of Yarmouth. “
553 "From 1631 to 1635, Antony Thacher lived in Salisbury, county of Wilts, England. Antony Thacher sailed for America in the 'James' (a vessel from London), from Southampton, England, April 6, 1635. His wife, children, and his nephew, Thomas Thacher (who became the first pastor of the Old South Church in Boston), son of Rev. Peter Thacher, Jr., appear to have come to America with him. Peter Higdon, a servant to Antony Thacher, also accompanied his master to America: One writer thinks that Peter Higdon was in reality Peter Thacher, 3rd, a son of Rev. Peter Thacher Jr. and that Peter Thacher, 3rd adopted the name of Peter Higdon for the purpose of deception. As the son of an English clergyman of Puritan sympathies It would have been difficult for Peter Thacher, 3rd to have left England if his true identity were known to authorities. The 'James' arrived at its destination in New England, June 3, 1635. Antony Thacher and his family lived for a short time in Ipswich, Mass., from which place they moved to Newbury, Mass. In 1635, Antony Thacher and his wife settled in what is now Marblehead, Mass."
552 "He was taxed on twenty acres of land in that part of Salem now Marblehead (Jan. 1 1638). Antony Thacher settled in Yarmouth about 1639. He, Thomas Crowell, and John Colte, who was 'to be enquired of', were the men to whom the lands at 'Mattacheeset' now called Yarmouth, were granted (Jan. 7, 1639): These men were the original proprietors of Yarmouth. Antony Thacher settled in the northwestern part of the village of Yarmouth. The house in which he lived stood on a little knoll midway between the residences of Mrs. James G. Hallett and Mr. Dustin Eldridge, in Yarmouthport (1872)."
552 "Antony Thah-er married secondly, about six weeks before coming to America, Elizabeth Jones, a sister of Richard Jones, of Dorchester, Mass., who came to America from Dinder, England."
552 “At varying dates between 18 December 1638 and 7 February 1638/9 Mr. Jon Crow, Mr. Thomas Howes, Mr. Anthony Thatcher and Mr. Marmaduke Mathews, all of Yarmouth, took the oath of fidelity, and they were the third throuh the sixth names in the list for that town (but no in their chronological order of admission) [page 185]. The court record for 7 January 1638/9 includes a list of nine ‘that are proposed to takeup their freedom at Yarmouth,’ the first four of whom are the four men named immediately above. They were not made fre immediately, since one of them took the oath of fidelity a month later; but they undoubtedly were admitted ot freemanship late in 1639 (or at least the first six of them), since they are included in the list of freemen which is correctly dated in 1639 [page 176].”
612“The permanent settlement authorized by the court began January 7, 1639 when ten ment were given permission to ‘take up freedom at Yarmouth.’ These were:Anthony Thacher, John Crowe, Thomas Howes, John Coite, Madrick Matthews, Philip Tabor, William Palmer, Samuel Rider, William Lumpkin, and Thomas Hatch.”
304“The plan for allocation of lands [in Yarmouth] was an early example of basic town planning. A committee was appointed by the Court to make an equal division of the planting lands. The committee consisted of Thacher, Crowe, Howes, Simpkins, Palmer, Tabor, and Barnes.”
304“By the end of the next year (1640) there were approximately twenty-five families in Yarmouth. Andrew Hallet, Jr. had purchased Stephen Hopkins’ house, the first built by an Englishman in town. It was located at the corner of the present Mill Lane and Route 6A. Originally called Stony Cove, Mill Pond (not the Mill Pond off Follins Pond) was the setting for a cluster of homes including, in addition to Hallet, Thomas Starr, William Chase, Giles Hopkins, Robert Dennis, and Joshua Barnes. Nicholas Simpkins and Anthony Thacher settled farther east. Still farther east was the first meetinghouse and the lands of the Reverend Marmaduke Matthews and Edward Sturgis.”
304“Miller’s ministry of fourteen years was not an easy one. The community had a proportion of ‘scoffers’ along with some who had strong Puritan and Pilgrim ties. Four at least had Pilgrim connections: Stephen Hopkins (who was only briefly a resident), his son Giles, Richard Sears, and Anthony Thacher.”
304“The ‘ordinary’, or tavern, was another town business. Keepers of an ordinary were licensed by the town and operated from their homes. Anthony Thacher, Edward Sturgis, John Miller, and Nathaniel Hall were among those licensed ‘to draw wine’ inthe early years.”
304"In 1657 Sachem Janno claimed that lands belonging to him in Yarmouth (Cummaquid) were purchased by Mr. Thacher and Mr. Howes and had not been paid for. John Alden and Thomas Southworth of Plymouth were appointed by the court to settle the controversy. In the court order of June 1658 it was reported by Alden and Josiah Winslow that apportionments had been made among various men and the town and "this be the final end of all differences".
243"By 1674 additional land was needed and Sagamore Massantampaigne sold what is now the northern part of Dennis to Anthony Thacher, John Crowe and Thomas Howes".
243“Yarmouth, one of the first four towns on Cape Cod, included what is not Dennis until that town incorporated in 1793. the first grantees were John Crowe, Thomas Howes and Anthony Thacher with 22 families of different social and religious backgrounds from various English and Welsh towns.”
303"Antony Thacher died between June 30, 1667 and Aug. 22, 1667. One writer says that he died Aug. 22, 1667; and his second wife survived him." More details to be entered.
552“Antony (2) Thacher came to America on the ship ‘JAMES’ in 1635, having in his charge his nephew, Thomas (3) Thacher (then a lad of fifteen). Antony (2) Thacher settled in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, wherer he was one of the original grantees. He was one of the leading men of his community and the founder of the Cape Cod branch of the Thacher-Thatcher family. Antony (2) Thacher always in signing his name spelled Antony whthout the ‘h’. This was probably due to the fact that as curate in the English Church he was in the habit of writing in latin, as the church records in those days were in the majority of instances written in that language, they going so far even as to use the Latin forms of English baptismal names; andhence from writing his name Antonius, in Latin, he acquired the custom of writing it Antony in English, instead of Anthony, the more commonly accepted English form of the name. However, in his period of time ‘Antony’ he was and not ‘Anthony’ as most commonly used.”
258“Anthony (2) Thacher, 1588-1667, of Yarmouth, Massachusetts, by seniority of generation the earliest known representative of the Somerset County, England, branch of the family known to have come to this country, spelled his name THACHER. Numerous of his signatures have been handed down to posterity, and a facsimile of the same may be seen in “Swifts’ “Old yarmouth’ on pages 90-91. The records of the parish church St. Edmund’s in Salisbury, England, also refer to him as Antony THACHER, during the time of his acting as curate of that parish, 1631-1635; and during that period in the entries made in the parish register by him, his signature is invariably Antony THACHER; and in the records of the birth of his children, and death of his first wife his name is also invariably given as THACHER. In the Diocesan Register of Bath and Wells, under the head of Queen Camel (England), he is referred to as AnthonieTHACHER under the date of February 7th, 1621. His descendants on Cape Code (Yarmouth Branch) and elsewhere for several generations adhered exclusively to this form of spelling, until shortly after 1700 when branches of his line settled in sections of the country remote from Cape Cod began inserting the second ‘t’ in their name; there are instances where one brother spelled his name THACHER, and another spelled it THATCHER; while they both descended from the above Antony (2) THACHER and were undoubtedly children of the same parents.”
258 More data to be entered.
258Dramatic shipwreck occurred off Cape Ann, August 15th, 1635. Entire text of letter from Antony Tahcer to his brother, Rev. Peter Thacher in Salisbury, England is to be entered.
258“The matter of the allotment of lands at Yarmouth was the cause of serious trouble in the early history of the town. The original grant from the Plymouth Court was made to four persons, three of whom, Mr. Anthony Thatcher, Mr. Thomas Howes, and Mr. John Crowe, were among the first settlers. These three held the lands in trust to apportionthem among such persons as should be admitted to settle in the town. They were known as the ‘committees of the plantation.’ Against their action in parcelling out the land, complaints were repeatedly made by some of the inhaitants and finally, in March 1647-8, the Court deputed Capt. Myles Standish to visit the town and compose the differences which had arisen. In May following, after hearing the parties, Capt. Standish made grants of land to various persons (among them a grant of ‘ten acres of upland and eight acres of meadow toward the South sea’ to William Nickerson) [Plym. Col. Rec. II, 129], and it was then and there agreed between the ‘committees of the plantation’ and the representatives of the town, that there should be added to the ‘committees’ three other persons representing the town and that no disposition of lands shoudl thereafter be made without the consent of these three or two of them. Mr. Star, William Nickerson and Robert dennis were selected to represent the town for that year, and their successors were to be chosen each year at the annual town meeting. [Plym. Col. Rec. II, 130] the differences comcerning these lands continued for a long time to agitate the people of yarmouth, and out of them probably grew a number of suits of slander and defamation byand against William Nickerson and others, which occupied the attention of the Court in October, 1650. The result of the proceedings was that all parties were orders to pocket their inujuries and discontinue their suits, though the Court desired Mr. Nickerson to se the evil of ‘his offensive speeches against sundry of the town. [Plym. Col. Rec. VII, 50]”
489“Antony (2) Thacher was buried on his own land in Yarmouth, not far from the marsh, by a little button pear tree situated near the march. This pear tree is said to have been planted by his own hands, and which Alden in his ‘Epitaphs’ states was standing in 1814. Swift in his ‘Old Yarmouth’ states that the tree was standing in 1884. The general location of his resting place is therefore known, but the identical spot is unknown, as his grave is not now, nor as far as knowledge extends, has ever been marked by a grave stone.”.
258,
262A stone, near the site of his supposed burial and visited by Barbara Fleming in August, 1997, [Photo on file] reads:
“Near this site lived and was buried
Antony Thacher
He came to America in 1635
From Somersetshire England
Ship wreckd on Thacher’s Island 1635
Settled in Yarmouth 1639”
260Photo of monument also in book (on file).
304,
662“Mr. Anthony Thacker (Yarmouth)
Inventory, he d. Aug. 22, 1667. Taken 13 Sep. by Edmund Hawes, Robt Dennis, and John Gorum. 266 pounds, 9 shillings, 9d.”
659“Court of Assistants at Plymouth, October 30th, 1667. ‘Letters of administration were granted by the Court to John (3) Thacher (his eldest son) to administer on the estate of Mr. Anthony Thacher, deceased.’ From the above record we see that he died intestate.”
262“1667-8. Court of Assistants at Plymouth, March 5th, 1667-8. ‘Letters of administration were granted to Mistress Elizabeth Thacher and unto John (3) Thacher to administer the estate of Mr. Anthony Thacher, deceased.’ From which we have recorded evidence that his second wife, Elizabeth (Jones) Thacher, survived him.”
262“Descendants of Anthony (2) Thacher are eligible for membership in the Society of Colonial Wars and the Society of Founders and Patriots and in the Order of Americans of Armorial Ancestry.”
262“Saling list of ship James . .’Southon. - A list of names of suche Passengrs as shipt themselves at the towne of Hampton, in the James of London of iije tonnes William Coopr Mr. vrs New England, in and about the vt of Aprill, 1635. . . Anthony Thetcher of Sarm, tayler and Peter Higdon his servant.’ “
262,
663“On January 7, 1638/9 the Governor and his Court of Assistants at Plymouth made a formal grant of land at Mattacheeset, already known as Yarmouth, to Mr. Anthony Thacher, Mr. John Crowe and Mr. Thomas Howes, adding the name of John Coite ‘to be enquired of.’ At the same time, Thacher, Crowe and Howes were proposed as freemen of Yarmouth, as were Mr. Marmaduke Matthews, Philip Tabor, William Palmer, Samuel rider, William Lumpkin and Thomas Hatch. It appears that all except Coite removed with their families and were settled in Yarmouth, including that part now the Town of Dennis, soon after this grant was made.”
329“Anthony Thacher was born in Somersetshire about 1588, the son of a staunchly Puritan family. He and his brother Peter, a Puritan minister, had planned to come to New England together. However, by a cruel twist of fate, both brothers were widowed at about the same time In spite of Peter’s problems with the Anglican bishops, who disapproved of his sermons and manner of conducting worship services, Peter decided to remain in England. But Anthony remained resolute. Having found himself a new wife named Elizabeth Jones, he then arranged for his baby son Benjamin to stay in England with Peter’s family, and booked passage for himself, his four older children, two of Peter’s sons, and the new Mistress Thacher on the ship James. Anthony and his family arrived in Boston in June of 1635. They went at first to Newbury, where relatives had previously settled. They were there for only a few weeks when they were invited to go to the fishing village at Marblehead to establish a church in company with Mr. John Avery, whom Anthony called ‘Cousin.’ En route to their destination on the vessel Watch and Wait, they were caught in the Great Colonial Hurricane of August 15, 1635. The vessel was wrecked and all who were aboard were drowned, except Anthony and Elizabet who survived by being washed ashore on the rocky island off the shore of rockport, which is called today Thacher’s Island. They two were rescued in a few days, devastated by the loss of their children and friends, but their faith unshaken. They continued on to Marblehead where they lived for a few years whicle Anthony improved his time by searching for the ideal place for their permanent home. Anthony’s goal was to find good farmland where he could raise sheep, cattle and grain, which he would sell to the constantly arriving newcomers who would need these supplies until they were settled on their own lands. In his search he found that the Plymouth Colony was willing to make available the land to the east of Plymouth Town on a peninsula reaching far out int the Atlantic where extensive fresh and salt marshes stretched from the forest to the sea. The marsh would provide ready pasturage for cattle and the forests abundant building material as well as fuel. In addition, there were several large cleared fields which had been cultivated by the Natives when their population was much larger, but which now lay empty. The land seemed like a paradise for a farmer. Anthony applied to the officials at Plymouth for permission to settle in the mid-area of this peninsula and it was granted sometime in 1638. He and Elizabeth established a homestead near the center of the town in what is now Yarmouth Port near the Ancient Cemetery. They brought with them an infant son named John, born in Marblehead. Two other children were born to the couple in Yarmouth - a daughter Bethia who married Jabez Howland and removed to Bristol County and a second son Judah, who married Mary Thornton, the daughter of the third minister of the town. All of the Tahcher families in future generations in the Cape towns are descended through John”.
329“The office of town Clerk and Treasurer of Yarmouth was filled for twenty-eight years by Anthony Thacher. He was a man much in the public service, perhaps because he was older than many of the other firstcomers and was educated at Cambridge University before emigrating.”
329“The Court meeting at Plymouth in October 1643 decided that, if the men could not come to an agreement, then a committee consisting of Samuel Rider, Anthony Thacher, Nicholas Simpkins, Lieutenant Palmer and the town’s Constable, who was Emanuel White at that time, was to decide on a place for the fort. . . A compromise of sorts was arrived at and at least two forts were built in the town. One was in Nicholas Simpkin’s back yard, on what is now New Boston Road in Dennis. One was in Anthony Thache’s back yard, very near the meeting house, on Church Street in yarmouth Port.”
329“Thacher, Antony. Yarmouth, Massachusetts.
Arms: Gules a cross moline silver on a chief gold three grasshoppers proper.
Crest: A grasshopper as in the arms.” Picture on file.
664“Anthony Thacher, it is believed, was born in Somersetshire county, England, about 1589. In 1610 we hear of him at Leyden, where he remained with Robinson and his associates about twenty years. But though imbued with the Pilgrim spirit, he found it consistent with his principles to serve as curate to his brother, Peter, who was rector of the church of the parish of St. Edmunds, at Salifbury, county of Wiltz. April 6, 1635, he sailed in the ship James from Southampton, together with Thomas, son of his brother Peter, a youth of fifteen years, arriving in Newbury, Mass., in June. In a voyage from Ipswich to Marblehead, undertaken in August, 1635, a terrific storm arose and their vessel was driven on the rocks on a island now bearing the name of Thacher, where his four children, his cousin, Rev. John Avery and his six children were drowned, Mr. Thacher and his wife being the only survivors of a company of twenty-three. After a short residence in Marblehead, Mr. Thacher obtained, in company with his associates before named, grant of the region then known as Mattacheese, surveyed the lands, and early in 1639 commenced the settlement of the town. His homestead was located ont he land about three hundred yards northeasterly of the dwelling house of the late James G. Hallet. Mr. Thacher married for a second wife Elizabeth Jones, six weeks previous to sailing for America.”
296“Anthony Thacher” is listed in the List of those able to bear Arms in New Plymouth for “Yarmouth. 1643”.
332“240 Old King’s Highway
1664
Georgian - Two Story Colonial
One of the original settlers of Yarmouth Port about 1638 was grantee Anthony Thacher. When his son John married in 1664, Mr. Thacher built a house for him near the corner of Thacher Street and Thacher Shore Road. In 1680, this house was moved to its present location. The original structure consisted of the eastern section only; the western wing being added later as the family grew.”
297He was also said to have come to New England in 1635 with his nephew Thomas Thacher in the ship ‘Beero”.
665“The ‘ordinary,’ or tavern, was another town business. Keepers of an ordinary were licensed by the town and operated from their homes. Anthony Thacher, Edward Sturgis, John Miller, and Nathaniel Hall were among those licensed ‘to draw wine’ in the early years.”
304“Although the early years of the settlement were lived in peace with the Indian population, hostile reactions were reported off Cape in 1642, and the colony decided to raise an expedition. Thirty men were required, and two volunteered from Yarmouth. Anthony Thacher was a member of the council of war.”
304“In 1657 Sachem Janno claimed that lands belonging to him in Yarmouth (Cummaquid) were purchased by Mr. Thacher and Mr. Howes and had not been paid for. John Alden and Thomas Southworth of Plymouth were appointed by the court to settle the controversy. In the court order of June 1658 it was reported by Alden and Josiah Winslow that apportionments had been made among various men and the town and ‘this be the final end of all differences.’ “
304“Appointment of selectmen was subject to colony approval. The first selectmen to appear in Yarmouth records were Anthony Thacher, Edmund Hawes, James Matthews, John Miller, and Joseph Howes. They were approved by the court in 1666.”
304“ ‘ 1635, Aug. 16, a great tempest, in which a bark of Mr. Allerton’s, returning from Ipswich to Marblehead, was cast away upon Cape Ann, & 21 persons drowned - among the rest. Mr. John Avery, who was to be settled at Marblehead, a minister in Wiltshire, a godly man, with his wife and six small children. None were saved but Mr. Anthonyh Thacher and his wife, who were cast on shore & preserved by a powder horn, & a bag with a flint, & goat & a cheese cast on shore after them, together with some bedding & other necessities; they were taken off the third day after by a shallop, which came to look for another shallop missing. The General Court allowed him £26.13.4 towards his losses, & divers good people gave him besides; his children with him were all lost.
His brother Peter was a clergyman of the city of Salisbury. Anthony’s nephew Thomas, first pastor of the third Church in Boston, came round by land & escaped. Mr. Avery was cousin of Anthony & came over in 1634 in a fleet of about 20 vessels in which also came Sir H. Vane. The rock was called Avery’s Fall & the island Thacher’s Woe or Thacher’s Island.’ [Winthrop’s Journal, Vol. 1, 165; 1 His. Coll., 8, 279; Mather’s Masgnalia, 3, 77. Ditto Remarkable Providences, Art. 1.]
Anthony Thacher, the subject of this heart-rending Narrative , was a tailor, from Salisbury, in Wiltshire, where his brother Peter was the rector of the church of St. Edmund as early as 1622. It was written in a letter to his brother, as Increase Mather says, ‘within a few days after that eminent providence happened to him, when maatters were fresh in his memory.’”
551“Anthony Thacher sailed from Southampton in April 1635, in the James, of London, and arrived at Boston, June 3. With him came his brother’s son, Thomas, then a youth of fifteen, his parents intending soon to follow with the rest of fthe family; which intention, however, was prevented by the death of his mother. Cotton Mather says that ‘a day or two before that fatal voyage from Newbury to Marblehead, our young Thacher had such a strong and sad impression upon his mind about the issue off the voyage, that he, with another, would needs go the journey by land, and so he escaped perishing with some of his pious and precious friends by sea. . . . After that sad catastrope, by which he lost all his children, Anthony Thacher resided at Marshfield, and ‘the General Court,’ sys Winthrop, ‘gave him £26, 13s. 4d. towards his losses, and divers good people gave him besides.’ In Jan. 1639, he removed to Yarmouth, on Cape Cod, being one of the three original grantees of land in that town, where he resided till his death, Aug. 22, 1667, aged about 80. The inventory of his estate amounted to £266 9.9. He was deputy from Yarmouth many terms between 1645 and 1665. He left two sons and one daughter, born after the disastrous shipwreck, John, Judah and Bethiah, who, tradition says, were the children of a second wife, named Elizabeth Jones, whom he married about six weeks before he left England. A long line of descendants, the children of John, perpeturate the name at Yarmouth, Boston, and elsewhere. . . .Winthrop mentions among athe articles saved from the wreck ‘a truss of bedding’; and Dr. Thacher states that ‘a cradle coverlet, of scarlet broadcloth, and some articles of clothing, said to have been saved from the shipwreck, are not in the possession of Mr. Peter Thacher, and such is the veneration for these relics, that every child of Thacher families that has been baptized in Yarmouth has been carried to the baptismal font enwrapped in them.. [See Increase Maather’s Illustrious Providences, pages 2-14; Winthrop, 1, 441-448; Mass. Hist. Coll., viii, 277, xxviii, 317, 319; N. Eng. Magazine, vii. 1-16. Note by Alexander Young, to Anthony Thacher’s Narrative of Shipwreck in Young’s Chronicles of Mass., pages 484-495.]”
551“Civil Lists. -
The deputies from Yarmouth in 1639 were Thomas Payne and Philip Tabor, who served two years each. . . . 1643, Anthony Thacher, 10 years.”
296“The land in this vicinity must have been controlled at first by Anthony Thacher, one of the three grantees of the Town of Yarmouth, who lived and died, as the Boulder to his memory staes, at the foot of Church street, then Thacher Lane. Soon, however, we find three families settled on three distinct tracts of land hereabouts. The descendants of Anthony Thacher, branching out from his farm to the south and the west - the Hawes family starting on Summer street, called Hawes lane for many years, but coming eastward along the Main street - and the Ryders(or Riders) on Strawberry Lane progressing by the Common on the east side and on the Main street to a point just east of the present Congregational church, where the two old mills stood.”
662“’This Mr. Avery,’ says Cotton Mather, ‘went to Newberry, intending ther to settle in Marblehead, he embarked with his own family, and his cousin Mr. Anthony Thacher’s, all of whom were lost except Mr. Thacher and his wife.”
666“One story that is probably very familiar to Thacher descendants is about the Great Hurricane of August 1635, in which the “Watch and Wait” was wrecked and all on board died, with Anthony and elizabeth (Jones) Thacher being the only survivors. . . . Anthony was one of the founders of Yarmouth and most Cape Thachers descend from his son John. The island off Rockport/Gloucester that Anthony and Elizabeth washed ashore on is called Thacher Island and the lights put there to aid mariners are called Thacher Island Twin Lights. There an interesting article online about the lights at
http://www.lighthouse.cc/thacher/history.html.
You can visit the island on Saturday mornings from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. from July through the end of August (weather permitting) aboard the Thacher Island launch. It’s a 30-minute ride to the island. You must make reservations in advance by calling 978-546-7697. Seats are limited because the Thacher Island launch only accommodates 15 passengers, and there’s only one trip each Saturday. . . . European visitors to Thacher Island date back at least to Samuel de Champlain in 1605 and Captain John Smith in 1614. The island was later named for Anthony Thacher, an Englishman whose vessel, the Watch and Wait, was wrecked in a ferocious storm near the island in 1635 on its way to Marblehead from Ipswich Thacher and his wife, Elizabeth, were the only survivors of the wreck in which 21 people died. Four of Thacher’s children from a previous marriage died in the wreck, and his cousin, Reverend John Avery, died along with his wife and six children. The General Court awarded Anthony Thacher the island ‘at the head of Cape Ann’ to recompense him for his losses, and he originally dubbed the island ‘Thacher’s Woe.” the island remained the Thacher family for 80 years. It eventually was bought back by the Massachusetts colonial government at a cost of 500 pounds for the purpose of establishing a lighthouse station.”
667“The names of various persons who had been members of Francis Johnson’s congregation before 1613, including the names of some who had withdrawn from it or been excommunicated, and of others who had became wanderers
Gathered from George Johnson’s ‘A discourse of some troubles/’, from ‘The prophane Schisme of the Brownists or Separatists’, and from Christopher Lawne’s ‘Brovvnisme Tvrned the In-side out-ward’, 1613 . . .
Anthony Thatcher . . . “
668“Apparently sometime within he years 1619-1621 Staresmore ‘went to Mr. [Nicholas?] Lee, and his people [the renmant of the Barrowist congregation in London] and desired of them Communion signifying to them’ that he was of their opinions and ‘in the same Covenant’ as a member of Henry Jacob’s church,’ & so got into theire Communion” But when they came to heare that Mr. S.[taresmore] had deceiued them: ther vvas a meeting appointed betvvene Mr. Lee and his people, & Mr. iacobe and his people, at the vvhich Mr. Sta.[resmore] himselfe vvas presente and three other men vvhich aftervvards vvere members of our [Ainworth’s] Church vvhich testified vnto vs, hovv things vvas caried: so being come together, Mr. Iacobe their manifested as the truth vvas that they never intended separation from the Church of England: appearing to Mr. S.[taresmore]. I [A.(nthony?) T.(hatcher?)] for vvitnesse saying their sittes Mr. S.[taresmore] lett him gainsay if if he can: to the vvhich speech, hee had not one vvord to gainsay’ [A.T.,s ‘A Christian Refrofe against Contention’, 1631, p. 5. The initials A.T. may stand for Anthony Thatcher, whose name appears in George Johnson’s ‘A discourse’, 1603, p. 63.]”
669“In 1622 or 1623 after Ainsworth’s death, Staresmore and others who sympathized with him were cast out of the church. This action was taken on the ground that Staresmore had misrepresented his case and had caused the congregation incorrectly to believe that he was a separatist. . . . Staresmore was a man of persistent purpose, and not easily turned aside from attaining his object. Hence, almost every Sunday for some time, we are told, he and his followers continued to attend the church services, and to create more, or less disturbance. Says A.[nthony?] T.[hatcher?] [In his ‘A christian Reprofe’, 1631, p. iii.]
‘to bring their porposes [sic] about, they came most Lord dayes, diuers years & troubled vs with desturbance, may haue been the prouocations, which they haue vsed toward vs to provoke vs: so that wee may truely say, that as paule had fought with beast [sic] at Ephesus, so haue wee at Amsterdam, fought with men of a beastlike condition, “
669“Staresmore evidently went to Leyden [Says A.T. in ‘A christian Refrofe’, p. 19, ‘first as I haue before showed when hee creept into Mr. Lees people into their communion, and after that cam ouer heare, and vvould haue had communion with vs: but hee seeing himselfe to haue resistance heare, after this hee vvent to Leyden, and creept into that Church and so made of them a bridge to git in vnto vs . . . ‘ “
669“In 1630 it is probable that Staresmore was in England for a time. We arrive at this conclusion by a comparison of two passages from widely different sources which seem to refer to the same unusual incident. One passage is in A.T.’s ‘A Christian Reprofe’, 1631, in which the following word occur: ‘yet since hee [Staresmore] was cast out from vs, hee went and had communion with them [members of the Parish churches in England], and batpized his child with them also. the other passage is in the so-called Jessey Records (No. 1 of the Gould Manuscript, of which we shall hear more in a subsequent chapter), three paragraphs from the close: ‘Whilst mr Lathorp [John Lathrop] was an Elder here [in Jacob’s church] some being greived against one that had his Child then [1630] Baptized in the Common Assemblies . . .’ “
669“As to the views of the Pidder-Martin-Mitchell Anabaptists, we are carefully informed by John Payne in a work published at Haarlem in 1597, of which the ‘Epistle’ is addressed to ‘Mr. A.T. [‘Mr. A.T.’ may have been Anthony Thatcher, who is mentioned in George Johnson’s ‘A discourse’, 1603, p. 63, and who in 1631 probably published ‘A Christian Refrofe against Contention’. ] “wit [sic] others of my lovinge acquayntans in the Royall Exchange’ at London: -
669“There seems to be nothing in the church organization and practice of the early New England Puritan congregations for which they were necessarily indebted to John Robinson, nor do these churches as a whole appear particularly to have studied the Plymouth congregation as a model. Certainly, tney did not at once become separatist, but ont he contrary looked upon themselves as true congregations of the Church of England. In fact, so much impressed with this idea was one ‘A.T.’, who wrote in 1631, and whose work has been previously mentioned, that he suggests that some English people in Holland even then were migrating to New England in order to join the Church of England! [See ‘A.T.’s ‘A Christian Refrofe Against Contention . . . ‘, 1631, p. 40: ‘some declining to the Church of England, & their liuing, other going a great compasse to new England to communicat with the Church of England: . . . ‘”
669“We shall begin with that remarkable sea-deliverance which mr. Anthony Thacher did experience at his first coming to New England. A full and true relation whereof I find in a letter directed to his brother, Mr. Peter Thacher, then a faithful minister of Christ in Sarum in England (he was father to my worthy dear friend, Mr. Thomas Thacher, late pastor of one of the churches in this Boston). This letter of Mr. Anthony Thacher to his brother, being written within a few days after that eminent providence happened unto him, matters were then fresh in his memory; I shall, therefore, her insert his narrative in his own words, who expresseth himself as followeth: [full text to be entered] . . . Thus far is Mr. Thacher’s relation of this memorable providence.”
670“NEAR THIS SITE LIVED AND WAS BURIED
ANTONY THACHER
HE CAME TO AMERICA IN 1635
FROM SOMERSETSHIRE ENGLAND
SHIPWRECKED ON THACHERS ISLAND 1635
SETTLED IN YARMOUTH 1639”
662“Two of the first newcomers were from the Pilgrim Leyden Congretation; Anthony Thacher, a grantee, and Richard Sears who settled in what is now East Dennis”
297“THATCHER, THACHER,
Mr. Anthony, of Sarum, tailor, came with his wife in the James in April, 1635; they were the sole survivors of a wreck at Cape Ann Aug. 16, 1635; the Gen. Court apptd, him adminr. of the est. of mr. Joseph Avery Sept. 1, 1635; gave him the island on which the wreck occurred 9 March, 1636-7. He was taxed as a propr. at Marblehead 1 (11) 1637. Rem. to Yarmouth; took aoth of allegiance to Plym. Col. 7 Jan. 1638-9. Deputy; had lic. to marry persons; magistrate. Ricahrd Sears called him brother. Admin. of his est. was gr. to John T. 30 Oct. 1667, and to his widow Mary 5 March, 1667-8.”
148“In 1635 there was a great tempest in the Colony. Mr. Thatcher, who was at one time a citizen of Marshfield, was in a vessel off Cape Ann with his cousin, John Avery, and their wives and children, when a storm overtook them on Friday night. Saturday found the wretched people clinging to a rock, now called ‘Avery’s woe,’ and there during the day the survivors lovingly comforted each other, as the waves with terrible deliberation singled out their victims. That night the only survivors were Thatcher, who had reached a rocky islet with his bruised wife, whom he dragged from the surges. A goat had also reached the rock, and a cheese, with some few trifles, washed ashore. It was Monday afternoon before the forlorn couple were rescued. But few of the many thousands who pass and visit the two lighthouses on Thatcher’s Island know of the terrible wreck and horrible suffering and endurance of those two survivors on that fateful rock, from whom came the name.”
312“The name of Thacher’s Island, off Cape Ann, commemorates an historic shipwreck in 1635 of which Thomas Thacher’s parents were the sole survivors. See ‘Biographical Sketches of the Thacher Family’ in New-England Magazine, July, 1834; also Hamilton Andrews Hill, History of the Old South Chuch, I, 122-125.”
311“Thatcher (Thacher), Anthony (1588/89-1667), from Eng. to Mass., 1635; was taxpayer at Marblehead, Mass., 1637; removed to Yarmouth; clergyman; rep. Gen.
“Torrey (p.733) says Thacher m. (1) Mary ___, who died in England in 1634 and (2) Elizabeth Jones in England. Banks (1930-138) says he brought his first wife, Mary.”
544“Oct. 1, 1661. - Loueing Frinds: Whereas the Generall Court was pleased to make some proposition to you respecting the drift fish or whales; in case you should refuse theire proffer, they impowered mee, though vnfitt, to farme out what should belonge vnto them on that account; and seeing the time is expired, and it fales into my hands to dispose of, I doe therefore, with the advice of the Court, in answare to your remonstrance, say, that if you will duely and trewly pay to the countrey for euery whale that shall come one hogshead of oyle att Boston, where I shall appoint, and that current and merchantable, without any charge or trouble to the countrey. [By an order of court, June 6, 1654, whales cast up on lands of purchasers belonged to said proprietors. (Plym. Col. Rec. iii, p. 53.) This being much more satisfactory than the order compelling tribute to the government, probably caused ill-feeling when the general court preferred a claim.] . . .
Youers to vse,
Constant Southworth Treasu.
The offer was accepted and indorsed as follows:
The sixt of the first month 61-62.
Agreement to give 2 bbls of oyle from each whale according to proposition made fo ryeare past, to end all troubles.
Anthony Thacher
Robert Denis
Thomas Boardman
Richard Tayler”
671